Thom Hogan Workshops (non-diving)

Those who are Nikon kind of people may be familiar with Thom Hogan. Photography boards are filled with his sycophants. He writes a lot of Nikon guides. He also does photography workshops. He's tried diving, but never with a camera. His workshops are strictly land based and generally involve landscape/nature locations. His mentor was Galen Rowell

I just noticed on his web site that he will be posting workshop dates for 2007 and 2008 on December 11. They generally fill up immediately and you will never see them listed again for another 2 years, which is why I posted this.

His workshops are limited to five people, or however many can fit in his vehicle. I was struggling with wide angle composition so I decided to take his workshop back in 2002. Oddly, two people had cancelled at the last minute and there were two of us students. The first night at dinner he asked us each what we wanted to learn. The other student wanted to learn more about camera settings and exposure, I wanted to focus on composition. This became our lesson plan for our afternoon sessions. Within an hour, the light bulb had come on. I definitely had become invigorated.

Again, not an underwater workshop, but the principles do carry over. Besides, hopefully some of you have actually depressed the shutter release directly and not through a housing.

As someone who also took a workshop with Thom I concur with that description. We spent a weekend with Thom in Washington D.C and I came away with a much better understanding of how to create a photograph, whether underwater or on land.

Have no experience of a workshop with Tom in particular, but I agree; you can't learn too much about taking pictures, and small group tuition from a motivated and experienced tutor should inspire you and open up new ways of looking at things.

darren